Saturday, August 20, 2011

We now live in a place where the car has to pass an emissions test every couple of years before renewing the license plates. That's a tad inconvenient when the car is spending most of its time in another state, at your kid's college.

So we figured Paul would have the car tested when he came home for Bethany's wedding, pass the test, pay for the license-plate sticker, and return to college. Easy-breezy, eh?

Uh. No. The "check engine" light was on. So now I'm driving his car while we deal with repairs. He's driving mine. We'll have to switch back sooner or later, which will involve another twelve hours of driving. [sigh]

** But here's the point:
** You don't have to wait until the paperwork arrives to go get your emissions test. For those of you with cars out-of-area or out-of-state with your college-aged kids, you can have the car pass the emissions test any time within 180 days prior to the license renewal. Good grief -- that would certainly simplify things. You just go to the emissions-testing facility and they can look up your info from the database, give you your test and your pass-sheet, and then later you can renew your plates when it's time.

No trying to cram in repairs in the last couple of weeks before your license plates expire. I wish I'd known this months ago!